Broken Contract is an action indie co-op horror extraction game set on PC where players control robotic units that carry fragments of human souls. The Company dispatches crews of one to eight into procedurally generated hazardous sites at night to retrieve valuables and return before the shift ends. Each location follows its own rules and presents distinct threats, from scheduled steam purges in a steelworks to movement-activated lights in an office floor or a tide-cut causeway leading to a lighthouse island.
Gameplay
The core loop centers on hauling cargo through dangerous environments while managing two separate health systems. The mechanical chassis tracks physical damage through hits that cause ringing, servo failures, sparks, and eventual power-down states that allow rebooting. The embedded soul tracks sanity, which erodes when units remain near pursuing entities. Prolonged exposure triggers brief machine takeovers marked by static and code interference, accompanied by audible whispers, heartbeats, and knocks audible only to the affected unit.
Sites scale to crew size and regenerate each shift, supporting solo runs or groups up to eight. Players carry heavy loads together, revive downed colleagues, and navigate unique site hazards. Proximity voice chat adds tension because the entities in the dark can hear spoken words, and one threat can mimic voices to mislead the crew. History fragments scattered across locations provide partial lore that players piece together themselves.
Game Modes
Three distinct modes shape the experience. Standard Contract emphasizes shared objectives with pooled wages. Union Contract encourages coordinated teamwork and mutual support. At-Will Employment removes team obligations, leaving every unit to operate independently and keep its own earnings.
Four difficulty settings range from Probation, which offers more forgiving conditions, to Expendable, where a full crew wipe permanently ends the save file. Before each shift, every player privately selects one of three offered contracts. These remain hidden until the post-shift Chaos Report reveals all choices and highlights the Moment of Betrayal when one contract's terms required sacrificing or undermining a colleague.
Additional Systems
Between shifts, players access a depot lounge that supports professions, a Company Store for upgrades, and reputation tracking that influences future opportunities. The procedural generation ensures varied layouts and threat placements even on repeated visits to the same site type. More locations are planned for future updates.
Mechanics reward both cooperation and calculated self-interest. Heavy cargo requires multiple units to move efficiently, yet certain contracts incentivize leaving others behind. Sanity management forces careful positioning, while chassis repairs and reboots create downtime risks during active threats.
Is It Worth Playing?
Broken Contract suits players who enjoy co-op horror extraction experiences with built-in betrayal elements and procedural variety. The dual health systems and voice-chat vulnerability create consistent pressure without relying on traditional jump scares. The contract system introduces meaningful player-driven tension that unfolds after each run rather than during it.
Those who prefer pure cooperative play can stick to Union Contract on lower difficulties, while groups seeking internal conflict will find At-Will Employment and hidden contract choices rewarding. The game remains in a pre-release state with a planned launch in Q4 2026, so prospective players should monitor development updates for final feature confirmation and balance adjustments.
